From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: basic question: going back to dired Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:04:39 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1217511666 17640 80.91.229.12 (31 Jul 2008 13:41:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:41:06 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 31 15:41:54 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KOYPP-00082f-Ue for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:41:36 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:48399 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KOYOV-0002ya-DK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:40:39 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!a21g2000prf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 61 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1217509480 2736 127.0.0.1 (31 Jul 2008 13:04:40 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:04:40 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: a21g2000prf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.97.120; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160737 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:56084 Archived-At: > I must agree wholeheartedly with Juanma. Until I remap the caps-lock > to control, I'm basically useless in Emacs. Once the change is made, > however, I can touch type and move around in emacs without even really > thinking about it. It becomes much easier! I must say something about remapping Control to Cap Lock... among tech geek circles, it's widely recommended like a dogma. However, remapping Control to Cap Lock seriously violates some basic ergonomic principles. In touch typing, modifiers comes in pairs, such as Shift. The accepted ergonomic way to press them is using one hand to press the modifier and the other to press the other key. You can see how by it is otherwise by disabling one of the Shift key. With just one modifier, you are heavily handicapped. As a example, try this exercise: TYPE THIS SENTENCE WITH JUST ONE SHIFT KEY AND WITHOUT USING CAP LOCK. Quickly, you'll see the pain. Similar is with other modifier keys such as Alt and Ctrl. The reason they are not noticed only because they are seldomly used. However, in emacs, it is heavily used. So, by mapping Ctrl to the Cap Lock key, you put a severe handicap by putting all work into the left pinky, and restrict the number of keys you can comfortably use with Ctrl. The reason that most still recommend it is because the Ctrl key is traditionally on the corner of keyboard and rather difficult to press. Also, many keyboards does not have right Ctrl. So, in a sense, Cap Lock as Ctrl is a improvement. It is especially a good solution on labtop keyboards. There are 2 ways to remedy the problem of pressing of Ctrl. One is to buy a good keyboard that has big Alt and Ctrl keys, and on both side of the keyboard, and symmetrically placed with respect to your thumbs when hands in home position. (some keyboards, such as Apple's, has the right side modifiers far to the right, rendering them unusable for touch type) Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard satisfies this requirement (MS's ergo keyboards is quite popular, and in fact MS's input devices is highly received. I haven't checked the facts, but i think MS's input devices has the largest market share. The second now is perhaps Logitech.). The other way is to learn to type the corner Ctrl by pressing down your palm or semi fist, instead of poking it with your pinky. This can be easily done on most PC keyboards. To see which is better, you can type this sentence and press Ctrl for every letter. (do it outside of emacs) You can quickly find out which way is better for you. Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84